A 17-hour drive to The Woodlands, Texas, is how pro triathlete Matt Hanson will begin his journey to the 2017 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN North American Championship, and this year is no different. Hanson has done the drive from Iowa to Texas at least 20 times; his ultimate goal, of course, is a podium finish on race day.

Texas has been good to Hanson. It's where his career as a pro triathlete began. It's where he got his pro card, where he won his first championship in 2015, and where he holds a course record for the fastest pro finish.

The Lone Star State vibes continued until last year.

In 2016, Hanson was on pace for a podium finish when he suddenly started to overheat. "I have no recollection of what happened," he says. "I didn't feel anything creeping up, it went downhill very fast. It's definitely a scary thing." After sitting down on the run course with a two liter of Coke, he remembers watching other athletes pass him. His family wasn't far, and they walked over to give him a pep talk. "After chatting with them, I thought to myself, 'I've come this far, there's no way I’m not finishing.'"

Hanson crossed the finish line in 23rd place with no memory of how the final leg of his race unfolded. All he had to go off was the data from his watch. "Going into Texas I knew I needed a good race from a KPR (Kona Points Ranking System) perspective. I didn't have many points after crashing my bike at Kona. I needed to race aggressively and I remember moving into third place on the run in The Woodlands, but I tried to push harder and I just didn't have it," he recalls.

Coming off a championship title at the event in 2015—a win Hanson shared with his sister, Liz Eser, who crossed the finish line a few hours after her big brother to complete her first IRONMAN race ever—23rd place didn't sit well with Hanson. He headed to IRONMAN Cairns to get back on track, but suffered another bike crash and his first DNF.

Quick Questions with Matt

Off-season training spot? "Boulder. My coach is based in Boulder and the people there are great. I could always find someone to go on a ride or a run with. Plus, IRONMAN Boulder is kind of my back-up plan this year if I’m in need of KPR."

Pre-race superstitions? "I'm not sure they're superstitions, but I eat the same thing for dinner the night before a race and breakfast the morning of."

Heat or wind on race day? "I'll take the heat! I wrestled in high school and college so that helped me get used to being uncomfortable for long periods of time in the heat."

Favorite aspect of racing in Texas? "The run course is the best. I love the energy of all the people along the waterway, it makes for a cool environment. The echoes I hear as I run under the bridge give me chills every time. And it's flat and fast."

Best recovery tip? "Take naps! A 20 minute nap a few times a week can have a positive impact on how you feel."

"After that I shut it down," he says. "I didn't think about racing until after the summer when the new season started. It was all about taking a bit of a mental break first, taking time to relax and recover and get healthy again." Like a true IRONMAN, Hanson got back out on the course before the end of the season and earned third, second, and first place finishes at IRONMAN 70.3 Miami, IRONMAN 70.3 Puta Del Este, and IRONMAN 70.3 Cartagena respectively.

"It was a good reminder that you race better when you don't worry too much about results."

Hanson has wise words about IRONMAN racing to share as he enters his fifth season as a pro—and gets ready to toe the line at North Shore Park:

"It's too long a day to be focused on what everyone else is doing every step of the way. You just have to go and race your race and make sure you're in the hunt at the end of it rather than trying to win it from the gun."

If Hanson's performances at the end of last year are any indication of what he's capable of in Texas, he would be a smart bet for a podium spot this weekend. He believes he has the fitness for a top three finish, but intends to approach the race conservatively: "I think I need a top five or six placement to secure my Kona slot for the year and that's the first priority." As for his strategies, Hanson says he'll bike with his head and take chances when he needs to, hoping to set himself up for success against the solid field of professionals on the run. He is ready to prove that he's ready for whatever Texas throws at him this year, keeping in mind his coach's (Julie Dibens) mantra:

"Make the hard really hard and keep the easy really easy."

The returning pro knows there are a lot of strong athletes racing this championship, and summed up his expectations of the race ahead by saying, "It's going to be hard to predict what's going to happen, so I'm just going to do my thing and give it all I have on the last lap of the run."

Follow Matt Hanson on race day by visiting the IRONMAN.com blog or @IRONMANlive on Twitter this Saturday (April 22, 2017) for the IRONMAN North American Championship.